2013 Movie Recap

Ah, another year, another 50+ movies (55, to be exact). Yes, it pains me to say that for the first time since I’ve done these movie wrap-up posts (can you believe it’s been six years?), I have fallen short of my goal of seeing more movies than I saw the preceding year. Far short. ELEVEN short, to be exact, as I saw 66 last year.

Here’s the thing: this year was just a crap year for movies. Actually, I take that back; 11/12ths of this year was crap for movies; December managed to bring the only good movies of the entire year, saving 2013 from being a total bust.

Because this year’s movies were, on the whole, a solid “meh,” I’m going to spare you all my usual rating system where I list out each movie and rate it; instead, because of the genius that is Letterboxd (huge hat-tip to Maddie Grant for suggesting it last year!), I can just link to the whole year’s list, complete with ratings. And I’ll just skip right to the good part:

Worst movie of 2013. No question about it, the worst movie of the year was This is the End. And that’s even with some super funny parts and my boyfriend, Jonah Hill. It was just shit. It would have been funny as a 10-minute short; at 107 minutes, it was pretty much just torture. And I say that as a very lenient movie critic–I’m like the Mikey of movies; I like pretty much every movie, so if I say it sucked, you know it was bad.

Best movie of 2013. Hands almost-down, Dallas Buyers Club. If Matthew McConaughey doesn’t win best actor for that movie, there’s no justice in this world. And ditto for Jared Leto for best supporting actor. I will say, however, that American Hustle was a close-ish second. It was pretty great, but the end just kind of fizzled. I will say, though, that I wouldn’t be mad if Christian Bale edged out Matthew McConaughey for best actor; I’m pretty sure his comb-over alone is Oscar-worthy. Wolf of Wallstreet was good, in case you’re wondering, but a bit too long and I had about enough of Leo DiCaprio in the way over-glitz-ized Great Gatsby.

A few other notables worth seeing: Anchorman 2 , which was funnier even than the original); The Company You Keep, which I don’t remember much about but remember really liking it; Blue Jasmine, for the decor and Cate Blanchett, who better at least be nominated for best actress; Rush, because it was awesome; and the guys’ talent show act in Best Man Holiday, because white person Christmas is just nowhere near as entertaining as all that. Although you will cry your eyes out (but not about the talent show), so be forewarned.

Here’s to 2014 being a better year for movies….it definitely could not be worse than 2013.